GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



.Trr.v. 



even ti'y to pall up grass- as it makes its ap- 

 pearance, so great is their love of order and 

 neatness. That it will pay in a "dollar and 

 cent" view can be seen from the following ex- 

 tract from A. B. J. Vol. 7, page 28. It is an 

 account of an experiment we then made with 

 our spring scales. 



'To resume the scales: twelve ounces per 

 hour is one ounce in every five minutes, and 

 this was readily seen while we were standing 

 before the hive. About nine o'clock we noticed 

 a great many bees falling short of the alight- 

 ing board, which they could not crawl upon, 

 us the hive was suspended, but had to rest 

 until they could again take wing; but they 

 were so heavily laden that this had often to be 

 repeated. By tacking a piece of cloth to the 

 edge o "the hive, so as to drop on the ground, 

 they hummed in as merrily as you please; and 

 the scales then showed fifteen ounces an hour, 

 or one in every four minutes. Now, what do 

 you think about suspended hives, or hives on 

 benches ? We took the hint and made an ex- 

 amination, and found many of our hives, where 

 the bees tumbled on the ground and rolled 

 over in their attempts to crawl up the painted 

 edge of the entrance to the hive. A three cor- 

 nered piece of wood sawed rough, made a nice 

 bridge for them. Mr. Langstroth's book sug- 

 gests the c'oth entrance, and we are sure a 

 little aid in that dire :tiou will be amply repaid. 

 Give the little fellows every possible facility 

 for unloading easily and speedily, and remem- 

 ber that their little* atom of strength is of much 

 importance to them, and that all needless steps 

 or flights should be saved them, as you would 

 save your own." 



WHAT I HAVE DONE. 



- r\ EAR NOVICE:— I propose to weary you with a 

 : M) Little history of my experience with bees. In 

 ^f' the spring of 1872. I got a box hive of Black 

 bees; transferred into Buckeye hive (Patent rigJU, 

 waste of money; ami about middle of June, took 25 lbs. 

 comb honey. No increase of bees or further yield of 

 honey that year. In winter of ,72 and '73 procured one 

 other box hive, and two Buckeyes, all Biack bees, 

 having four colonies in all, about 1st Jan., 1873. My 

 original stock in Buckeye, died oat from cold— too 

 much upward ventilation. Spring ('73) found me with 

 two Buckeyes and one box hive, out the season was 

 wo poor that they barely made enough to live on; in 

 fact late in the season, say about 1st of Aug. 1 discov- 

 ered the box hive, which was the strongest in the 

 early spring, to be entirely out of honey and having 

 before that time procured some of your Simplicity 

 frames ami hives, 1 transferred from the box hive into 

 the Simplicity, and commenced feeding, ami the result 

 exceeded my expectations ; for the Queen commenced 

 laving immediately (she had no eggs in the box hive) 

 and before the 1st Nov. 1873, the bees had increased 

 largely, and had stored and capped over about 25 lbs. 

 \ < oiiee sugar syrup. In the meantime, 1 had trans- 

 ferred the combs from the two remaining Buckeyes 

 into other Simplicities, and before cold weather, had 

 them all in good condition, save one, which gave ev- 

 idences of oeing Queenless; and it was for this hive 

 that I ordered a dollar Queen of you last fall, which 

 Queen 1 had the misfortune to lose in introducing. 

 Winter coining on, i made a hive 48 inches long, and 

 as wide as Simplicity is long; intending to remove the 

 frames from small hives into this long one, and put 

 wire ciotli frames between each colony of bees, so as 

 to secure all the heat in a body. I did so and they 

 seemed to do well. The Queenless colony seemed the 

 strongest in the lot, and there was no quarreling or 

 robbing among them. 



The entrances to each section, were about hi inches 

 apart, and I one day. after cold weather set in well, 

 observed very few' bees about the entrance to the 

 Queen less stock, and on raising the quilt discovered 

 the bee- all gone, and on raising the quilt over the 



adjoining colony, I judged from the quantity of bee- 

 there, that those ol the Queenless stock had united 

 With their neighbors; so 1 removed the wire cloth 

 frame, and substituted a close fitting partition. There 

 were now two colonies left, having a wire frame be- 

 tween. This wire cloth did not lit tightly at the bot- 

 tom, and on examination one day. I failed to tind a 

 Queen in the side that bad been next the Queenless 

 colony, and there also seemed very few bees. 1 con- 

 ceived the idea that the Queen had died or had passed 

 under the wire frame into the other side, as the bee-. 

 were ventilating or buzzing very intently down in one 

 corner, where 1 observed they were passing to and fro 

 very readily. So, supposing they might remain quiet 

 even if the Queen was alive, and in the other side, as 

 I had read of such things. 1 removed the wire cloth 

 frame entirely. The next morning I found a dead 

 Queen in front of the hive, but the bees were quiet 

 and friendly. 



I did not know then, whether I was without a Queen 

 or not, but an examination discovered one all right. 

 But in about a week, they killed her, and so i was 

 then in a bad fix. I had plenty of good comb, and 

 sealed syrup, and one very strong Queenless colony. 

 I failed to find a Queen anywhere here, and it was too 

 cold to get. one by mail, sol had to wait until I could 

 get a weak swarm, which I finally did in Jan. last ; 

 and in a few days united them with my large colony, 

 and they have been doing very well so far. They are 

 Hybrids, and I have them still in my large hive, single 

 story, and have 22 frames in. with brood on 15 of them ; 

 and on the 3rd inst. 1 extracted olh lbs. of black Lo- 

 cust and Clover honey; having extracted six lbs. ear- 

 lier in the season. 



They are now storing again rapidly, and the Queen 

 is doing her duty, having been badly crowded, before 

 I extracted. I had my tinner make an extractor by 

 directions in Glkanings at a cost of $7.50, and it 

 works admirably. I extracted 18 frames, and did not 

 receive a sting. "I wear a veil, but never use a smoker 

 of any kind. My hive is low down and has saw-dust 

 in front, and a step or alighting board. I intend divi- 

 ding when I receive my Queen. 



Having now conducted you over the ground I have 

 traveled in Bee-Keeping for a little over two years, I 

 am prepared to believe you are weary and will close 

 by wishing you better "luck" than you had last win- 

 ter. What "Novice has done, he can do again, 1 am 

 well assured, and believe your disasters of the past, 

 will onlv serve as guide boards in the future. 



Yours truly, J. H. CRIDJDLK. 



Nashville, June 5th, 1874. 



We are not weary friend C., but on the con- 

 trary tender our thanks, and request full par- 

 ticulars of the future working of your mam- 

 moth hive. Our experience with wire cloth 

 for division boards has been quite similar, viz., 

 that they sooner or later get together and you 

 have one colony instead of more. 



WATER FOR BEES. 



f (f£\ HEY are robbing the Quinby hive. 



i 



was suffering from a "tormented headache," to 

 use his own" expression, one pleasant Sunday 

 afternoon in May. He had often boasted /« 

 didn't have headaches, and seemed, so the 

 women folks say, to regard the matter as a 

 kind of feminine 'weakness that one should be 

 ashamed of, but now he was making more of a 

 row about it than a whole dozen of the weaker 

 sex, and more than all some neighboring Black 

 bees had just discovered that a quantity of 

 combs of nicely sealed sugar syrup were but 

 poorly guarded by a few miserably weak Italian 

 stock's. 1 Under the circumstances Mrs. N. and 

 Master Ernest had been directed to close the 

 entrances of such hives as failed to make a 

 successful resistance, by banking the saw-dust 

 up in front. They soon reported that I he rob- 

 bers were going out and in under the cover of 

 the Quinby hive, it having warped enough to 

 allow this." In this dilemma Novice was again 

 consulted, and was obliged to cease rolling and 



